Most people do not have a logical theory to understand how government and politics work. Many people believe in the myths they catch at home or at school. Many think that their country is undoubtedly the best in the world, and their opinions and beliefs stem from that.
We must not look down on ordinary people. The poorer the country, the more they need their energy to survive and raise families. In rich countries, the common people are those who, when left free, form the middle classes that founded and sustained the Industrial Revolution. The problem comes when, through the state, they do not understand, they want to get benefits and rights at the expense of others and decide how others should live (see “Princess Mathilde and Bad Political Behavior,” Econlib, April 1, 2024).
The political leaders they follow, and who are often eager to obey blindly, do not need to have a critical theory of the state except as an instrument of their desires and power. Nicolás Maduro, who was right, fraudulently as far as we know, re-elected the president of Venezuela, a country he ran down with his mentor and predecessor Hugo Chávez, seems to have a simple vision of the regime, which happens to be very right. self-centeredness. I Financial Times reports (“Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s Contested President,” August 2, 2024):
In the end, his fate will likely be decided by the powerful military and whether he remains loyal. For now, he is focused on burning his image. “I am Nicolás Maduro, student, worker, union leader, congressman, legislator and foreign minister,” he told a news conference. “And I do it with love.”
A separate piece of this report is the journalist’s factual statement that “Maduro approached China and Russia and implemented free market policies.” If “free market policies” are policies to respect and protect the voluntary cooperation of individuals without the mandatory guidance from political authorities, Maduro has not done such a thing, because it would threaten his power. What this newspaper is saying is that Maduro has recently allowed the spread of the dollar to interfere with the dissatisfaction of those who need his political support.
In its various manifestations, love is a natural and useful emotion in private interactions with small groups. But public love from unbridled political rulers and coercive politicians is a very dangerous thing. James Buchanan and the modern school of constitutional political economy defend a completely opposite view: institutions that compel political leaders to participate in the maintenance of a free society based on the ethics of harmony among equally free people. In their mind The Calculus of ConsenceJames Buchanan and Gordon Tullock wrote:
The Christian theory, in order to succeed in leading to a more harmonious social order, must be influenced by the acceptance of the moral responsibility of the individual, the rule of equal freedom. Acceptance of a person’s right to do as they wish as long as their actions do not interfere with the freedom of other people to do the same should be a prominent feature of any “good” society. The rule “Love your neighbor, but leave him where he wants to be left” can, in a sense, be said to be the dominant moral principle in a liberal Western society.
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